Pocono cancer veterans enjoy picture-perfect day

Stroudsburg single mom Jenifer Chan got heartbreaking news three years ago when one of her four daughters, aged 12, was diagnosed with leukemia.

JENNA EBERSOLE

Stroudsburg single mom Jenifer Chan got heartbreaking news three years ago when one of her four daughters, aged 12, was diagnosed with leukemia.

A year later, the family's joy that the cancer was gone turned to disbelief — doctors told Jenifer she had breast cancer.

Saturday morning, Jenifer and Naomi Chan, now 15 and a student at Stroudsburg High School, sat to get their hair styled and makeup done. Her nails freshly painted for the day, Jenifer smoothed her hand over her curls, laughing as she explained her hair was straight before it regrew and she is afraid it might straighten again if she cuts the waves.

Mother and daughter celebrated that they are both cancer-free at a photo shoot Saturday. Photographer Lori Prashker-Thomas, of ShadowCatcher Ltd. Photography, is fighting cancer herself and volunteered as part of the "I Picture Hope" international photographer network that gives free photo sessions to women who are battling or have survived cancer.

Naomi leaned lightly on her mother's shoulder for one photo, before Prashker-Thomas asked Jenifer to turn and cup her daughter's cheek in her hand.

Both said they were initially stunned with their diagnoses.

"I was like, 'Wow, I didn't even do anything yet,'" Naomi said when she found out she was sick.

She said she knew people who had fought cancer, but did not expect to experience it herself. She said she now encourages others not to take anything for granted.

"Don't waste anything," she said.

When her mom was diagnosed, Naomi said the family had just returned from a Make-A-Wish Foundation trip. It was even harder for her knowing firsthand the pain to come for her mom.

"Chemo hurts," she said. "As weird as it sounds, it's liquid, but it's like poison."

Jenifer said her faith kept her going.

"Even though the days looked dark and uncertain, at the end of the day there was a lesson to learn," she said, adding that she thanks God day-to-day for the simple things in life.

Both are now involved in the Breast Friends of Pennsylvania organization, which supports families affected by breast cancer and helped set up the photo shoot, where they have made close friendships. Naomi helps in the group's H.O.P.E. workshops, talking to children affected by cancer in their family.

"Even though something bad happened, a lot of good has come from it," Jenifer said.

Jenifer said she was also excited to get the makeover and pictures. Treatments affected her teeth and hair.

"I never looked at myself in the mirror," she said, during treatment.

Prashker-Thomas, of Wilkes-Barre, said she began the photo shoots to give women "their pretty back." When she was diagnosed several years ago, she did not feel pretty, but her husband, also a photographer, told her she was gorgeous and took headshots to prove it.

When she saw them, even though she was bald, she believed him.

"They made me feel powerful, empowered," she said, a sense she hopes the women she shoots feel as well.

She took the photos free of charge, and families could buy prints, with proceeds to go to Breast Friends of Pennsylvania.

"It's my way of giving back," she said.

Find out more about Breast Friends of Pennsylvania at breastfriends.org/affiliates/pennsylvania.